TowersStreet Site Discussion & Feedback

[Joel]

Hello!

This topic, along with the TowersStreet Progress Log are your chance to catch up on the latest developments of the site and feed back to us any thoughts, questions or problems. A team member will also usually reply if your feedback requires it too!

Thanks for your continued support

 

[DiogoJ42]

Well, now that it's working for me, may I say how spiffing the new banner looks?

 

[Andrew]

Loving the new site design! Also, the way the banner follows you down the page is great as it means that you do not have to scroll up to return to the main forum page. Great work.

Could there be something done about the empty space at either end of the banner though? They seem a little out of place as everything else is aligned down the centre of the page.

Other than that, keep up the good work!

 

[Rob]

I really like how the banner follows you down the page, that's great. However when you are right at the top of the page, the two 'sides' of the banner just look silly and out of place on their own. They are just floating in the middle of nowhere and I personally think it ruins the looks of the site. It's not a problem when the banner is pushed to the very top of the page when you do scroll down, that looks ok.

 

[Mike]

The banner looks AMAZING, thanks Joel!

One minor thing - when I click somewhere to view a specific post, the top is cut off by the menu bar - is there any way to make it actually link to x pixels above the post, where x is the height of the menu bar?

 

[Alastair]

The banner looks AMAZING, thanks Joel!

One minor thing - when I click somewhere to view a specific post, the top is cut off by the menu bar - is there any way to make it actually link to x pixels above the post, where x is the height of the menu bar?

This is exactly what I was going to post. Their username is also cut off. It's a minor detail but an annoyance compared to how it used to be.

 

[Jonathan]

I'd like to echo what Mike and Alastair have said. Also, this is probably just me being picky, but the yellow edging on the menu bar looks a bit out of place when compared to the colours used on the logo. Other than that, it looks great!

 

[Fredward]

It looks great and good work,

though I will say I'm not a fan of it following me down the page, I don't really need to click any of the links, but I know that you aren't advertising the rest of the site to other people, but I feel it takes up valuable screen space for links we don't really need when browsing the forum

I'm clearly in the minority though! and I'm sure I only am unsure with it because it's different, I'll probably get used to it in a couple days.

runs and hides.


Looks fantastic aesthetically though! Keep up the good work!

 

[DiogoJ42]

I'm not normally a fan of things that follow you down pages, but then, those things are usually annoying adverts. But in this case it's small and unobtrusive enough to not make a difference to my browsing. It helps that the TS logo "minimises" when you start to scroll down. A full height logo would make the banner too big.

 

[James]

I like it.

Sure it's a bit weird to see. But I'll get used to it (as I'm sure many will) soon enough and at least TowersStreet is keeping up with the times in offering a modern and very well designed site.

Good work by Joel and the team!

 

[Anonymous]

I think an option to hide the banner would be a good idea, especially if, like me you don't like it being fixed to the browser.

Also, is there any chance of some margin on the bottom so that the gap between the banner and the main content is separated like it is on the forum?

 

[DiogoJ42]

I agree, an option to hide it would be nice. But Like I say, it's small enough to not be an issue for me. If it had more forum options on it (such as the "new posts" link etc") then it might be more relevent as a forum only user... But for once, I'm not going to complain about it. It bothers me not.

 

[MattyH]

One problem I have is how the alerts seem to have been minamised so the text combines with the picture and there is a bit of empty white space.

 

[Ben]

The banner has been a little while coming, and personally I love it.

Im not sure if it could be an option or not, but as ever we are listening to the feedback. Cheers for the support guys.

 

[Dave]

I'd like to echo what Mike and Alastair have said. Also, this is probably just me being picky, but the yellow edging on the menu bar looks a bit out of place when compared to the colours used on the logo. Other than that, it looks great!

Gold is one of the TS colours used in the logo edging and text.

 

[Johno]

With regard to the top banner, I'd suggest a black shadow background to the gold at the bottom.

Just so it has some contrast to some elements of the page.

 

[Joel]

One problem I have is how the alerts seem to have been minamised so the text combines with the picture and there is a bit of empty white space.

Fixed!

The banner looks AMAZING, thanks Joel!

One minor thing - when I click somewhere to view a specific post, the top is cut off by the menu bar - is there any way to make it actually link to x pixels above the post, where x is the height of the menu bar?

This is exactly what I was going to post. Their username is also cut off. It's a minor detail but an annoyance compared to how it used to be.

Fixed!

Other Issues...

The gold bar - I have noticed it seems to have a little transparency on it, which I think is causing a bit of an issue. I'll look into it as a fix in the coming days.

In reference to comments about the width of the banner - it is now designed like this (and I guess why so may become more apparent with some of the other updates that also have elements styled across the whole page) and not just really because we wanted it like that (although partly so I guess!), more than it draws focus and attention to bar which is what we want people to notice!

Same as minimising, hiding or not showing to forum regulars - aside from being messy to code, we really want the navigation to be prominent and visible to encourage people to navigate around the site, no matter how much of a forum-only lover you are!

As for taking up "valuable" screen space, at only 40 pixels wide you're really not missing much that you're not likely to be looking at anyway. The most popular screen resolutions on the site calculate that the most space lost by most users is 5.9% of their browser viewport, so its not really an issue I believe.

It doesn't show for mobiles (although it will show on some tablets - depending on your screen size thoughtfully!) also as I said in the progress update

There are some more changes we're working on with regards to mobile viewing but they are a while off yet anyway, requiring a lot more effort than these initial changes we have planned!

 

[Tim]

I really like it although there is one minor suggestion I could make. When looking at the top of the forum there's a massive blank space above all the different tabs. Would it be better if the text is in the middle (equal gap above and below) or at least brought in line with the TowersStreet name?

It's just that at the moment all the text is crammed in at the bottom which makes sense when you scroll down and it shrinks the bar but it doesn't need to be so close to the bottom when full size.

I hope that made sense :S

 

[Rob]

Just a little something I've noticed. When I view my alerts it shows up like this:

I guess it's not meant to be like that? It wasn't before. Sorry if it's already been mentioned!

 

[Novas]

Ok, I get it, you don't like IE, but unfortunately a hell of a lot of people do still use it. The forum was already bug ridden when viewing in IE, and as pretty as this latest facelift is it is now completely unreadable.

I now have to open up another browser just to view this one site. Regardless of your personal preferences surely this isn't a smart move? :/